JGWeissman comments on What is Metaethics? - Less Wrong

31 Post author: lukeprog 25 April 2011 04:53PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (550)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 28 April 2011 04:31:24AM *  5 points [-]

Mostly by outside view analogy with the history of the development of science. I've read a number of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers (along with a few post-modernists) arguing against the possibility of a coherent theory of physics using arguments very similar to the ones people are using against morality.

I've also read a (much larger) number of philosophers trying to shoehorn what we today call science into using the only meta-theory then available in a semi-coherent state: the meta-theory of mathematics. Thus we see philosophers, Descartes being the most famous, trying and failing to study science by starting with a set of intuitively obvious axioms and attempting to derive physical statements from them.

I think people may be making the same mistake by trying to force morality to use the same meta-theory as science, i.e., asking what experiences moral facts anticipate.

As for likely I'm not sure how likely this is, I just think its more likely then a lot of people on this thread assume.

Comment author: JGWeissman 28 April 2011 04:47:17AM 2 points [-]

I think people may be making the same mistake by trying to force morality to use the same meta-theory as science, i.e., asking what experiences moral facts anticipate.

If that is true, what virtue do moral fact have which is analogous to physical facts anticipating experience, and mathematical facts being formally provable?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 28 April 2011 04:48:43AM 1 point [-]

If that is true, what virtue do moral fact have which is analogous to physical facts anticipating experience, and mathematical facts being formally provable?

If I knew the answer we wouldn't be having this discussion.